Conor McGregor will miss UFC 303 due to injury, Dana White announced on Thursday night.
The promotion was able to build a new title bout into the main event, with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira fighting Jiri Prochazka for the title.
Pereira had previously been on a media tour of Australia and had been plagued by a number of injuries himself, but made a sudden return for a second time in 2024.
“Poitan” has fought at UFC 300 before, but the promotion was nowhere near a UFC 300 main event.
Sources told The Post that McGregor’s injury is not expected to sideline him long-term and that UFC is actively considering rebooking the fight as early as August.
But hurdles still remain.
Creating an entirely new fight card in such short order will be difficult, and with only a limited number of dates available, finding a venue will be a challenge in itself.
The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the typical venue for UFC’s biggest fight cards, is booked up every Saturday from August through September except for Aug. 10, Aug. 24, Aug. 31 and Sept. 14.
Of course, UFC could look elsewhere, but McGregor hasn’t competed for UFC outside of T-Mobile Arena since his fight against Eddie Alvarez at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12, 2016.
It is unclear when McGregor’s injury occurred.
McGregor was spotted partying with his fiancée on May 27, but then a press conference scheduled for McGregor and Michael Chandler in Dublin, Ireland on June 4 was bizarrely canceled abruptly just 12 hours before the event was scheduled to begin.
A source told The Washington Post that the cancellation of the press conference was related to an injury McGregor suffered and not to any foul play.
McGregor has not fought in the UFC since July 2021, when he suffered a gruesome leg injury that was considered career-threatening.
